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Trinity  College  Historical 
Society  Collection 


Trinity  College  Library 
Durham,  N.  C. 


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Jn  Jttemoriam. 


Rt;  Rev.  Thomas  Atkinson,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


BISHOP  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


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SERMON 


COMMEMORATIVE  OF  THE  LATE 

Thomas  Atkinson,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Bishop  of  Norih  Carolina 

DELIVERED  IN  CHRIST  CHURCH,  RALEIGH 

BEFORE  THE 

Convention  of  North  Carolina 

May  18,  1881 

BY 

HENRY  C.  LAY 

Bishop  of  Easton 

NEW  YORK 
JAMES  POTT,  PUBLISHER 
12  Astor  Place 


W 
\ 
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\ 


„.%  Some  portions  of  this  sermon  were  omitted,  for 
lack  of  time,  in  the  delivery. 


SCHOOL  OS-RELfCFOV 

SERMON. 


Peter  seeing  him  saith  to  Jesus,  Lord,  and  what  shall  this  man 
do?  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  If  I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what 
is  that  to  thee?    Follow  thou  me. — John  xxi.,  21,  22. 

HE  risen  Lord  is  conversing  with  the  two 
most  eminent  of  His  apostles.  He  shad- 
ows forth  what  shall  befall  them  in  the 
latter  days. 

"  Follow  me,"  He  said  to  Peter,  and  suiting  the 
action  to  the  word,  He  took  some  steps  along  the 
shore.  He  predicts  a  life  of  persecution.  He  sig- 
nifies also  what  manner  of  death  he  should  die. 
Bonds  and  the  Mamertine  prison  await  him,  and  he 
is  to  be  crucified  at  Rome  with  his  head  down- 
ward. 

Thus  dealeth  the  Merciful  One  with  a  devoted 
servant,  whose  heart  He  had  just  broken  by  the 
very  excess  of  His  forgiveness,  and  on  whom  He 
had  just  devolved  the  most  sacred  of  all  trusts,  the 
feeding  of  His  sheep  and  of  His  lambs. 


4 


In  Memoriam. 


"And  what  shall  this  man  do?" 

St.  John,  already  a  martyr  in  will,  although  un- 
bidden, has  risen  up  to  tread  in  symbol  the  via 
dolorosa  behind  his  master  and  his  comrade. 

Our  Lord  replies,  for  history  interprets  the  dark 
saying,  that  for  John  there  awaited  not  like  bitter- 
ness of  death.  He  was  to  tarry  to  a  good  old  age 
until  his  Lord  should  come  and  give  him  release 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature. 

But  ''what  is  that  to  thee?"  We  must  not 
question  Him  too  curiously  when  to  one  disciple 
He  appoints  a  life  of  sorrow  and  a  death  of  shame, 
while  another,  just  as  ready  for  the  baptism  of  suf- 
fering, is  to  abide  in  safety  and  to  die  in  peace. 

My  brethren,  I  would  set  in  the  forefront  of  this 
discourse,  the  expression  of  our  devout  gratitude 
to  Almighty  God  for  the  tenderness  of  his  life-long 
dealing  with  Thomas  ATKINSON,  late  Bishop  of 
North  Carolina.  Few  lives  have  been  so  even  and 
so  prosperous,  so  laden  with  substantial  blessing, 
so  shielded  from  calamity. 

I  am  far  from  suggesting  that  he  did  not  share 
to  the  full  in  the  trials  and  the  griefs  common  to 
all  great-hearted  Christian  men.  The  flesh  could 
not  be  subdued  to  the  spirit  without  anguish  of 
soul.  Zeal  for  God's  house  could  not  but  consume 
the  heart  in  which  it  burned.  Sympathies  so  habit- 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


5 


ually  cultivated  could  not  fail  to  call  forth,  in  this 
sad  world,  many  a  tear  of  generous  grief.  Grave 
responsibilities  could  not  be  borne  through  a  long 
life,  and  often  under  critical  circumstances,  without 
heart-ache  and  anxiety,  and  many  a  wound  to  the 
sensibilities.  But  for  all  this,  we  may  rightly  say 
of  this  steward  in  the  family  of  God,  "  The  Lord 
was  with  Joseph,  and  he  was  a  prosperous  man, 
*  '  * :  *  the  Lord  was  with  him,  and  that  which 
he  did,  the  Lord  made  it  to  prosper." 

Consider  him  in  his  natural  endowments  and  his 
personal  gifts.  How  goodly  a  presence  was  his ! 
A  manly  form,  a  noble  head,  a  countenance  in 
which  intellectual  power,  strength  of  will  and  sweet- 
ness of  temper  were  harmoniously  combined,  and 
were  the  more  lovely  for  the  singular  absence  of 
self-consciousness.  Strangers  everywhere  turned 
to  look  on  him  as  on  a  man,  beyond  doubt,  a  chief- 
tain in  his  proper  sphere. 

How  suitable  was  his  preparation  for  his  ultimate 
work!  To  early  familiarity  with  plantation  life 
and  country  people  were  added  the  study  and 
practice  of  the  law,  promoting  that  judicial  mind 
which  in  after  years  gave  him  so  much  power  in 
debate,  and  which  in  the  House  of  Bishops  caused 
him  to  be  deferred  to  in  any  emergency  specially 
demanding  moderation  and  just  judgment. 


6 


In  Memoriam. 


During  his  earlier  ministry,  the  very  repression 
to  which  men  of  his  ecclesiastical  views  were  sub- 
jected in  Virginia,  served,  as  in  the  case  of  his  dear 
friend  Bishop  Cobbs,  to  make  him  more  cautious, 
more  tolerant,  more  careful  to  observe  the  propor- 
tion of  faith.  But  he  never  wavered  in  the  two 
convictions  which  moulded  his  ministerial  career, 
viz.,  that  the  apostolic  authority  has  been  perpetu- 
ated and  is  now  vested  in  the  Bishops,  and  that  in 
the  holy  sacraments  grace  is  exhibited  and  con- 
ferred, unless  there  is  a  bar. 

Success  attended  his  priestly  ministry  in  Norfolk 
and  in  Lynchburg.  When  he  removed  to  Balti- 
more, Maryland  at  once  recognized  his  ability,  and 
gave  him  her  confidence.  Grace  Church  is  a  monu- 
ment of  his  success  as  a  Presbyter  of  that  diocese. 

He  was  prospered  as  Bishop  of  North  Carolina. 
That  diocese  had  just  received  in  the  defection  of 
his  predecessor  a  severe  and  mortifying  blow.  The 
friends  of  Bishop  Atkinson  anticipated  for  him  no 
small  difficulty  in  securing  the  confidence  of  people 
alarmed  and  agitated,  and  in  preventing  the  re- 
bound toward  denial  of  catholic  truth,  which  so 
naturally  follows  the  insidious  intrusion  of  medi- 
eval errors  under  color  of  that  honored  name. 

I  need  not  tell  you  that,  under  his  firm  and 
gentle  guidance,  confidence  was  restored,  and  your 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


7 


diocese  remained  true  to  her  principles  as  in  the 
days  of  Ravenscroft. 

I  would  mention,  moreover,  some  illustrations 
of  this  prosperity,  of  another  sort.  Bishop  Atkin- 
son was  never  a  man  of  large  wealth.  He  had 
never  more  than  a  moderate  salary ;  but,  through 
the  blessing  of  God  upon  a  domestic  life  void  of 
ostentation  or  extravagance,  and  a  household  most 
prudently  administered  by  one  on  whom  he  had 
need  chiefly  to  devolve  that  care,  he  had  always 
enough  for  reasonable  wants  ;  enough  for  his  fa- 
vorite books  ;  enough  to  help  a  poor  man  ;  enough 
to  aid  a  child  or  a  friend  in  an  emergency.  Nay, 
during  the  years  of  civil  war,  when  the  usual  in- 
come from  the  diocese  failed  him,  it  was  as  if  the 
ravens  brought  him  food.  An  old  investment,  for 
long  years  utterly  worthless,  became  remunerative 
for  the  time,  and  supplied  all  his  needs. 

In  another  point  of  view,  the  domestic  life  of 
our  departed  friend  is  remarkable. 

To  Robert  and  Mary  Tabb  Atkinson,  of  Mans- 
field, Va.,  were  born  eleven  children,  of  whom 
Thomas  was  the  sixth  in  order.  The  first  death 
in  this  large  family  was  that  of  the  eldest  son,  at 
the  age  of  fifty.  Another  son  died  at  the  age  of 
sixty;  thus,  of  the  Bishop's  ten  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, eight  survive  him,  and  three  of  these  survivors 


8 


In  Memoriam. 


are  his  seniors.  Again,  the  Bishop's  married  life 
extended  over  a  period  of  fifty-three  years.  In  all 
this  time  there  was  never  a  death  in  his  immediate 
family. 

Surely,  brethren,  those  of  you  who  are  familiar 
with  the  sorrow  of  the  "  dead  lamb"  in  the  flock, 
and  the  "  vacant  chair"  by  the  fireside,  will  recog- 
nize the  tenderness  of  providential  ordering,  which 
thus  exempted  from  bereavement  one  who  had  a 
singular  appreciation  of  the  family  tie,  and  who 
especially  enjoyed  the  affection  and  the  compan- 
ionship of  his  kindred. 

I  might  multiply  these  illustrations:  I  might 
speak  of  the  absence  of  all  acrimony  or  defamation 
in  the  exciting  controversies  in  which  he  was  con- 
spicuous ;  of  the  health  usually  adequate  to  his 
duties ;  and,  when  it  had  seemed  to  fail,  wonder- 
fully restored  by  travel ;  of  the  comparatively  easy 
descent  into  the  grave  at  last — made  the  easier 
from  the  knowledge  that  the  diocese  was  safe,  dur- 
ing his  disability,  in  the  charge  of  an  experienced 
colleague  fully  adequate  to  its  administration. 

Brethren,  you  have  the  right  to  ask  why  I  have 
dwelt  at  so  much  length  upon  these  particulars.  I 
answer  that  this  review  of  the  prosperous  life  of  a 
man  who  had  the  courage  and  the  will  to  drink 
any  cup  of  pain,  and  yet  was  spared  so  much  of 


Bishop  Atkinson, 


9 


life's  bitterness,  teaches  us  a  lesson  concerning  the 
love  of  God. 

It  reminds  us  that  where  the  conditions  of  the 
individual  soul  and  the  development  of  the  divine 
purpose  permit,  God  prefers  to  assign  us  the  dis- 
cipline of  prosperity,  rather  than  of  adversity.  He 
doth  not  deal  with  us  capriciously,  but  varies  the 
expressions  of  His  love  to  suit  the  needs  of  each 
soul,  and  to  fit  it  for  its  place  and  its  work  in  His 
spiritual  kingdom.  It  is  not  every  one,  as  Leigh- 
ton  says,  who  can  carry  a  full  cup  even. 

It  was  because  the  Lord  loved  St.  Peter  that  He 
made  him  partner  in  His  stripes  and  wounds  and 
bitter  cross ;  it  was  because  the  Lord  loved  St. 
John,  that  He  sustained  him  in  life  with  the  rap- 
turous visions  of  Patmos,  and  gave  to  him  a  peace- 
ful old  age  in  which  to  preach  still  his  favorite 
message,  "  Little  children,  love  one  another." 
But  it  is  the  same  infinite,  undying  love,  which  sets 
each  star  in  the  celestial  firmament  where  best  it 
may  illustrate  the  glory  of  His  grace. 

In  discharging  the  duty  which  your  Bishop  and 
other  honored  members  of  this  diocese  have  laid 
upon  me,  I  cannot  easily  avoid  the  strain  of  per- 
sonal reminiscence. 

Our  ancestors  were  friends  and  neighbors,  and 
were  connected  by  marriage.     My  mother  was 


IO 


In  Memoriam. 


reared  in  the  family  and  married  at  the  home  of 
his  grandfather,  and  the  family  bond  was  drawn 
more  closely  in  later  years. 

My  first  visit  to  him  was  at  his  home  at  Lynch- 
burg, in  the  year  1843.  Very  pleasant  is  it  to  recall 
the  intimacy  of  the  three  friends,  Cobbs  and  Parks 
and  Atkinson,  and  their  discussions,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  young  candidate  for  orders,  of  a  problem 
that  at  that  time  so  agitated  the  diocese  of  Virginia 
— the  ultimate  tendency  of  the  Oxford  Tract 
Movement. 

In  the  year  1850  I  found  myself  with  Dr.  Atkin- 
son in  the  House  of  Deputies,  where  he  was  con- 
spicuous as  a  leader,  and  we  .  have  ever  since  been 
associated  in  one  or  the  other  house  of  the  General 
Convention.  When  he  was  consecrated,  I  was  his 
attending  Presbyter :  presently  he  preached  the 
sermon  at  my  own  consecration,  and  afterwards  I 
discharged  the  same  duty  in  this  pulpit,  at  the  con- 
secration of  his  assistant  and  successor. 

In  time  of  peace,  and  time  of  war,  we  have  been 
associated  in  council  and  committee,  acting  to- 
gether in  critical  circumstances,  and  uniformly 
agreeing  as  to  the  great  principles  of  ecclesiastical 
administration. 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


FAMILY  AFFECTION. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  noted  that  Bishop 
Atkinson  laid  much  stress  upon  the  ties  of  kin- 
ship. No  man  was  more  free  from  the  weakness 
of  courting  the  great  and  the  wealthy,  or  from  the 
affectation  of  pretending  to  be  the  superior  of  his 
neighbors  in  birth  or  social  position.  But  he  held 
that  family  connection  with  worthy  people  of  the 
past  and  the  present  is  a  privilege  to  be  duly  rec- 
ognized. 

A  year  before  his  death,  in  the  little  cathedral 
chapel  at  Easton,  he  expounded  the  salutations  in 
the  last  chapter  of  Romans.  He  read  the  verses, 
"  Salute  Andronicus  and  Junia,  my  kinsmen  ;  "  "  sa- 
lute Herodion  my  kinsman  ;  "  "  Lucius  and  Jason 
and  Sosipater,  my  kinsmen  salute  you." 

"  See,"  he  said,  "  how  much  stress  the  apostle 
lays  upon  the  family  tie  !  And  so  everywhere.  In 
the  Gospels  the  relationship  of  apostles  to  each 
other  is  told  us.  In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  James 
is  our  Lord's  brother,  John  Mark  is  sister's  son  to 
Barnabus.  I  can  but  think  it  is  a  Christian  duty  to 
recognize  and  to  value  these  bonds  of  kinship. 
When  people  boast  that  they  do  not  care  for  their 
relations  and  connections  more  than  for  other  peo- 


12 


In  Memoriam. 


pie,  it  only  proves  that  they  have  cold  hearts  and 
care  little  for  any  one  but  themselves." 

And  surely  he  was  right  in  this  position.  It 
does  widen  our  hearts  and  broaden  our  sympathies 
thus  to  love  our  kindred.  It  is,  beyond  all  doubt, 
a  restraint  upon  the  young  to  know  that  they  bear 
a  name  which  has  never  been  dishonored,  and  that 
any  misdeed  of  theirs  will  carry  personal  mortifi- 
cation into  an  extensive  circle  of  relatives  and 
connections. 

CATHOLIC  PRINCIPLES  AND  CHRISTIAN  CHARITIES. 

In  an  age  of  unhappy  religious  divisions,  dis- 
crepancies of  doctrine  and  of  discipline  do  often 
seriously  mar  the  intimacies  of  the  family  and  the 
friendships  of  social  life. 

As  a  churchman  Bishop  Atkinson  occupied  no 
uncertain  position.  He  held  that  the  constitution 
of  the  Church  was  divine,  imposed  upon  her  by  her 
Lord,  and  not  to  be  changed  in  the  discretion  of 
men.  He  maintained  that  its  government  was 
vested  in  the  Bishops,  and  that  the  authority  to  rule 
the  church  of  God  has  been  duly  transmitted  from 
age  to  age  in  the  line  of  an  apostolic  succession. 

He  affirmed  that  the  Church,  in  the  long  centu- 
ries of  her  triumphs  and  her  martyrdoms  was  one 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


13 


body,  known  everywhere  as  the  one  holy,  catholic, 
and  apostolic  Church,  with  no  lines  of  difference 
or  demarcation  save  those  of  nationality.  In  the 
denominational  arrangement  Avhich  recognizes  no 
other  bond  than  a  common  acceptance  of  evangeli- 
cal truth,  he  could  not  recognize  the  original,  or- 
ganic unity  of  the  one  Bride,  the  undefined.  He 
held  and  maintained  very  pertinaciously  that  the  na- 
tional Church  of  England,  as  a  historic  church,  as 
a  corporation  which  has  never  forfeited  the  charter 
of  the  Lord,  bears  the  symbols  of  authority,  and  is 
entitled  to  the  spiritual  allegiance  of  the  nation 
where  she  resides.  He  claimed  for  the  daughter 
Church  of  America  like  authority  over  the  nation- 
ality which  sprang  from  the  loins  of  England. 

Holding  these  views,  he  could  not  and  he  did  not 
unite  in  official  ministrations  with  the  clergy,  how- 
ever beloved  and  respected,  of  other  religious  bodies. 

Is  it  possible,  we  are  often  asked,  that  a  wise  and 
good  man  can  adhere  to  these  convictions,  when 
they  require  him  to  lock  up  his  sympathies,  to  shut 
his  eyes  to  the  noble  zeal  and  heroic  deeds  of  Prot- 
estant Christendom,  to  deny  in  the  teeth  of  incon- 
trovertible facts  the  blessing  and  power  of  God  the 
Holy  Ghost,  upon  so-called  irregular,  ministrations? 
— when  they  force  him  on,  so  to  speak,  technical 
grounds,  to  deny  his  brotherhood  with  the  meek 


14 


In  Memoriam. 


and  loving  ones  over  whom  his  Lord  pronounced 
the  beatitudes  ? 

If  results  like  these  did  indeed  follow  practically 
and  logically  from  the  maintenance  of  what  are 
known  as  catholic  principles,  it  would  be  an  argu- 
ment against  their  truth. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Bishop  Atkinson,  with  all 
his  uncompromising  adherence  to  his  ideal  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  Church  as  it  was  in  faith,  in 
doctrine,  in  ecclesiastical  order,  before  the  division 
of  the  East  and  West,  did  cultivate  the  largest 
Christian  sympathies.  In  every  one  who  loved  his 
Lord  and  exhibited  the  image  of  His  holy  character, 
he  recognized  a  brother.  So  far  from  disparaging 
religious  excellence,  he  recognized  it,  and  rejoiced 
in  it  wherever  it  was  found.  In  those  systems  and 
organizations  with  which  he  could  not  personally 
co-operate,  he  was  the  last  to  deny  the  merit  of 
their  administrative  methods,  the  activity  of  their 
zeal,  or  the  beneficial  results  of  their  ministrations. 
Himself  unwavering  in  his  convictions,  he  did  not 
pronounce  those  who  differed  from  him  wrong- 
headed  or  bad-hearted.  The  proof  of  all  this  is 
found  in  his  affectionate  relations  with  many  not 
of  our  communion,  in  the  absence  of  all  bitterness 
in  his  teachings,  in  the  respect  and  kindness  enter- 
tained for  him  by  persons  of  all  denominations  in 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


i5 


his  diocese.  And  was  he  illogical  in  this?  Did  the 
instincts  of  the  heart  prevail  over  the  mistaken 
convictions  of  a  partisan  judgment  ?  Remembering 
how  remarkable  he  was  for  his  love  of  the  truth, 
for  subordinating  everything  to  the  truth,  for  fol- 
lowing out  the  truth  to  all  its  consequences,  we 
might  well  hesitate  to  believe  that  he  indulged  sym- 
pathies which  could  not  be  reconciled  with  his  intel- 
lectual convictions.  Long  years  ago  he  called  my 
attention  to  a  sermon  of  William  Archer  Butler's  on 
the  compatibility  of  catholic  principles  with  Chris- 
tian charity.  He  indorsed  it,  as  fully  expressing 
his  own  mind,  and  dwelt  upon  the  pleasure  and 
satisfaction  which  he  experienced  in  finding  his 
own  convictions  directly  formulated  and  forcibly 
argued. 

It  is  not  illogical  to  hold  that  division  is  in  itself 
a  sin  and  a  disgrace,  while  we  believe  that  with  the 
many,  it  is  a  misfortune  rather  than  a  fault.  The 
many  are  guiltless  of  any  purpose  to  disregard  the 
ecclesiastical  economy  derived  from  our  dear  Lord, 
or  to  disturb  that  unity  for  which  He  prayed. 
They  are  following  the  examples  of  their  fathers 
and  mothers,  and  seeking  to  work  out  their  salva- 
tion amid  the  surroundings  into  which  they  were 
born. 

It  is  not  illogical  to  hold  that  Almighty  God  has 


i6 


In  Mentor iam. 


certain  channels  for  the  transmission  of  His  spirit- 
ual graces,  and  that  our  personal  safety  and  a  just 
regard  to  the  highest  interests  of  humanity  require 
that  we  should  stand  in  the  old  paths,  that  we 
should  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  deliv- 
ered and  for  the  order  once  universally  prevalent, 
and  that  by  divine  warrant :  it  is  not  illogical,  I 
claim,  holding  these  principles,  to  believe  with 
Archer  Butler,  that  God  binds  us  but  not  himself 
by  these  prescriptions,  that  there  is  a  merciful 
accommodation  to  altered  circumstances,  however 
they  may  have  originated  in  a  fault,  so  that  grace 
is  not  frustrated  by  reason  of  our  innovations  and 
irregularities.  If  an  artery  be  obliterated,  whether 
by  misfortune  or  by  fault,  it  doth  not  follow  that 
circulation  must  cease  in  the  unhappy  member. 
The  physical  anastomosis  has  its  analogue  in  the 
realm  of  spirit.  We  cannot  agree  that  separation 
from  the  one  catholic  body  of  Christ,  which  is  in 
itself  an  evil,  and  is  to  the  individual  a  grievous 
loss,  does  either  in  logic  or  in  fact  make  void  the 
gracious  purpose  of  our  Father  in  Christ  Jesus. 
God  forbid  that  in  our  zeal  for  order  and  authority, 
we  should  deny  that  God's  word  is  efficacious  as 
spoken  by  earnest  men  of  other  orders  or  of  no 
orders  at  all !  God  forbid  that  we  should  deny 
that  grace  is  conferred  to  godly  people  in  sacra- 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


17 


ments  ministered  otherwise  than  as  we  would  dare 
to  minister  them  !  God  forbid  that  the  most  faith- 
ful bishop  or  priest  should  be  unwilling  to  accept 
the  lesson  of  humility  and  benevolence  from 
any  saintly  man,  howbeit  in  his  view  church 
organization  is  matter  of  mere  expediency  or  pre- 
ference ! 

One  of  Bishop  Atkinson's  firmest  convictions, 
founded,  as  he  thought,  on  the  general  consent  of 
the  primitive  church,  was  that  every  baptism,  by 
whomsoever  administered,  where  the  matter  and 
the  form  are  used,  is  a  valid  baptism,  and  that  the 
person  so  baptized  becomes  thereby  a  member  of 
the  catholic  body  of  Christ. 

He  told  me  that  in  St.  Peter's  church,  Balti- 
more, when  a  child  was  presented  for  baptism, 
there  was  a  hesitancy  in  replying  to  the  prelimin- 
ary questions.  On  inquiry,  it  appeared,  that  at 
its  birth  the  child's  life  seemed  to  be  in  danger, 
and  that  the  physician,  of  his  own  motion,  hastily 
applied  the  water  and  pronounced  the  formula. 
Bishop  Atkinson  affirmed  this  baptism  sufficient, 
and  refused  to  repeat  it. 

Catholic  principles  may  consist  with  Christian 
charity.    I  know  of  no  life  which  more  than  our 
departed  father's  was  a  proof  and  illustration  of 
this  proposition. 
2 


i8 


In  Memoriam, 


His  parents  were  Church  of  England  people: 
they  lived  and  died  in  our  communion. 

But  in  their  day  the  Church  was  at  its  lowest 
point  of  coldness  and  indifference.  There  were 
some  able  and  earnest  men  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  especially  Dr.  John  H.  Rice  and  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Rice,  who  labored  with  much  success  in 
Southern  Virginia  in  awakening  men  to  religious 
earnestness.  The  Atkinsons,  while  they  adhered 
to  the  Parish  Church,  and  there  frequented  the 
Holy  Communion  three  times  a  year,  came  under 
the  influence  of  these  ministers,  and  were  largely 
guided  by  them  in  their  spiritual  life.  Bishop 
Atkinson  was  baptized  in  the  Episcopal  church  : 
some  of  the  children  later  born,  received  baptism 
at  the  hands  of  Presbyterian  ministers,  and  thus 
the  family  became  divided.  The  bishop  and  two 
of  his  brothers  remained  in  the  church  of  their 
fathers :  while  three  of  the  brothers,  of  whom  two 
survive,  took  Presbyterian  orders,  and  have  been 
beloved  and  efficient  ministers  in  that  communion. 
The  sisters  are  divided,  in  like  manner,  in  their 
ecclesiastical  relations. 

I  have  heretofore  intimated  that  love  of  kindred 
was  a  passion  with  Bishop  Atkinson.  It  could  not 
but  be  a  pain  and  grief  to  ail  the  members  of  the 
family,  that  in  anything  which  affected  their  relig- 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


19 


ious  life,  there  should  be  difference  of  opinion. 
But  no  shadow  ever  came,  by  reason  of  such  differ- 
ence, over  the  peace  and  happiness  of  their  homes. 
I  doubt  whether  in  all  the  land  could  be  found  a 
large  family  of  brothers  and  sisters  so  devoted  to 
each  other,  so  delighting  in  each  other's  company, 
so  sympathizing  in  each  other's  joys  and  sorrows, 
so  ready  to  seek  fraternal  advice,  so  free  to  utter 
all  their  minds  on  all  subjects  at  each  other's  fire- 
side, kindly  and  courteously  but  without  reserve. 

My  Brethren,  let  us  not  be  frightened  because 
the  world  deems  any  definiteness  of  belief  to  imply 
uncharitableness.  Charity  is  not  indifferentism. 
Charity,  while  it  makes  the  largest  toleration  for 
individual  infirmities,  dares  not  be  liberal  in  dealing 
with  truth  and  duty.  But  I  may  best  conclude  this 
part  of  the  subject  in  the  Bishop's  own  words. 
Said  he,  in  a  published  sermon,  "  Be  assured,  in 
order  to  be  right,  in  order  to  be  safe,  it  is  not 
enough  to  be  sincere  ;  it  is  necessary  to  hold  the 
truth  sincerely.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  truth, 
whatever  skeptics,  whatever  sensualists  may  say  to 
the  contrary. 

"  It  has  an  existence  independent  of  all  that  men 
think  concerning  it.  If  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
sun,  we  do  not  extinguish  it  thereby — it  still  shines 
on ;  so,  if  we  remain  ignorant  of  the  truth  or  re- 


20 


In  Memoriam. 


ject  it,  it  still  subsists — nay,  if  the  whole  world 
agrees  to  deny  it,  it  still  subsists.  It  is  indeed  im- 
mortal. Religious  truth  is  the  transcript  of  the 
eternal  ideas  in  the  mind  of  God.  Error  is  of  the 
earth,  earthy.  Error  is  perishable.  .  .  .  Well 
then,  may  the  wise  man  say,  Buy  the  truth  and  sell 
it  not.  Buy  it  at  any  price ;  sell  it  at  no  price.  Buy 
it  with  toil,  with  obloquy,  with  suffering,  with 
danger ;  sell  it  not  for  money,  nor  fame,  nor  safe- 
ty, nor  popularity,  nor  life."* 


THE  EPISCOPATE,  ITS  POWERS  AND  DUTIES. 

I  pass  on  to  consider  our  departed  father,  as  a 
bishop  in  the  church  of  God,  and  of  the  influence 
he  exerted  as  priest  and  bishop,  in  vindicating  the 
just  prerogatives  of  the  episcopal  office. 

The  American  Church,  after  emerging  from  her 
colonial  dependence,  entered  upon  her  career  under 
many  disadvantages. 

For  all  practical  uses,  there  had  been  in  the  col- 
onies, no  ecclesiastical  discipline  or  subordination. 
The  canonical  oversight  of  the  Bishop  of  London 
was  almost  a  fiction.    The  church  was  nondescript 


*  Tracts  for  Miss.  Use,  No.  I,  "  What  is  Truth,"  p.  16. 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


and  acephalous.  An  Episcopal  Church  without  a 
bishop  is  the  very  worst  form  of  Congregationalism. 
No  wonder  that  the  clergy,  hitherto  free  from  any 
rule  or  oversight,  should  regard  with  jealousy  and 
alarm  the  elevation  of  one  of  their  number  to  a 
superior  position. 

The  question  of  the  ordinal,  "  Will  you  reverent- 
ly obey  your  Bishop?  "  was  distasteful  to  republi- 
can ears ;  it  was  easy  to  invent  a  casuistry,  still 
much  in  favor,  whereby  the  solemn  pledge  should 
be  emptied  of  all  its  significance.  Some  would 
make  it  to  mean,  not  that  the  first  impulse  shall  be 
to  follow  with  a  glad  mind  and  will  the  Bishop's 
godly  admonitions,  and  to  submit  one's  self  to  his 
godly  judgment,  as  a  dutiful  child  respects  the  ad- 
vice and  judgment  of  his  father  ;  but  this  instead: 
I  will  reluctantly  obey  the  Bishop  when  disobedi- 
ence threatens  to  entail  ecclesiastical  censure  or 
deprivation.  Thus  there  grew  up  the  theory  that 
the  Bishop  has  no  rights  of  fatherhood  inherent  in 
his  high  commission,  but  is  the  mere  creature  of 
the  canon.  He  is  primus  inter  pares,  appointed 
to  discharge  certain  ministerial  functions.  He  has 
indeed  the  care  of  all  the  churches,  but  with  the 
exception  of  some  definite  official  acts,  must  be 
the  curate,  not  the  chief  pastor,  in  any  particular 
church  where  he  officiates.    In  the  fear  of  episco- 


22 


In  Menioriam. 


pal  despotism,  the  office  was  in  danger  of  being 
robbed  of  all  its  efficiency. 

The  contest  over  the  just  rights  and  dignity  of 
the  episcopate  had  to  be  fought,  and  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  William  Rollinson  Whittingham  was 
called  to  be  the  champion  for  this  principle.  I  may 
say  the  martyr  for  it. 

He  had  thrown  himself  into  his  office  with 
wondrous  zeal  and  energy.  For  a  time  the  growth 
and  new  inspiration  of  the  diocese  attested  the 
might  which  is  inherent  in  a  vigorous  government 
sustained  by  spiritual  earnestness.  And  then  there 
grew  up  a  resistance  to  the  exercise  of  what  he 
deemed  the  absolutely  essential  privileges  of  his 
office,  so  persistent  and  obstructive  that  it  robbed 
his  work  of  its  sweetness,  and  entailed  upon  him  a 
life-long  sorrow. 

This  controversy  was  the  burning  question  at 
the  General  Convention  of  1850,  and  at  that  Con- 
vention and  in  the  preceding  Diocesan  Convention 
of  Maryland,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  Dr.  Atkinson,  then 
rector  of  St.  Peter's,  to  vindicate  the  true  ideal  of 
the  office  of  a  bishop. 

If  these  two  fathers  had  no  other  claim  upon  the 
Church's  gratitude,  they  would  deserve  to  be  ever 
held  in  honor,  for  averting  so  great  a  calamity  as 
that  of  the  degradation  of  the  episcopate. 


Bishop  Atkinson, 


23 


In  this  Maryland  controversy  of  1850,  it  was 
maintained*  that  the  bishop  had  no  right  to  ad- 
minister the  Holy  Communion  at  his  visitation  ; 
and,  indeed,  that  "  a  proper  respect  for  the  just  in- 
fluence of  his  office  as  a  presbyter  of  this  church  " 
actually  forbade  the  rector  to  "  vacate  the  trust  of 
such  administration."  It  was  held  that  while  the 
law  forbade  the  celebration  by  the  bishop,  it  was 
silent  in  respect  to  the  use  of  the  pulpit  and  desk ; 
these  the  bishop  might  occupy  at  his  visitation,  but 
only  by  the  courtesy  of  the  incumbent. 

Maryland  will  not  soon  forget  the  magnificent 
debate  which  ensued,  both  sides  being  represented 
by  men  of  extraordinary  ability.  Dr.  Atkinson  was 
the  author  of  the  report,  and  moved  the  resolu- 
tions sustaining  the  bishop,  which  were  adopted 
by  an  overwhelming  majority. 

I  consider  this  report  one  of  the  most  important 
utterances  ever  given  to  the  American  Church.  The 
argument  is  thus  concisely  expressed  : 

"Your  Committee  is  of  opinion  that  the  true  solution  of 
these  questions  does  not  rest  on  any  mere  verbal  criticisms  of 
Canons  and  Rubrics,  although  entirely  consistent  with  the 
results  of  such  criticism,  when  rightly  employed.  Their  true 
solution  rests  on  principles  much  deeper  and  more  vital  ; 


*Vide  the  correspondence  in  Appendix  to  the  Maryland  Journal 
of  Convention  of  that  year. 


24 


In  Memoriam. " 


principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  Church  itself.  In 
reasoning  with  churchmen  it  is  lawful,  it  is  indeed  only  re- 
spectful to  them,  to  take  as  axioms  those  truths  which  the 
Church  clearly  maintains,  however  they  may  be  doubted  or 
denied  by  those  out  of  her  pale.  Among  such  truths  are  the 
following  : 

"  i st.  That  Bishops  are  successors  to  the  apostles  in  the 
ordinary  powers  of  their  office,  though  not  in  the  extraordi- 
nary qualifications  and  endowments  of  those  first  ministers 
of  Christ. 

"  2d.  That  as  such  the  apostolic  commission  embraces 
them,  and  that  they  too  are  enjoined  and  authorized  to  go 
into  all  the  world,  and  teach  or  disciple  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

"3d.  That  consequently,  Bishops,  as  such,  have  the  right 
to  preach,  and  to  administer  the  Sacraments,  as  well  as  rule 
in  the  Church. 

"4th.  That  these  Episcopal  rights  are  to  be  exercised  in 
their  dioceses,  these  being  their  appointed  fields  of  labor. 

"5th.  That,  consequently,  every  Bishop  has  a  right  to 
preach  and  administer  the  Sacraments  in  his  diocese,  inde- 
pendently of  any  parochial  cure  which  may  be  intrusted  to 
him  ;  and  in  every  part  of  his  diocese  ;  for  if  there  be  any 
part  of  his  diocese  in  which  he  cannot  exercise  episcopal 
rights,  then  in  that  part  he  is  not  Bishop. 

"  On  these  principles  the  Committee  found  their  clear  con- 
viction of  the  general  right  and  authority  of  a  Bishop  to 
preach,  or  to  administer  the  Sacraments,  and  to  rule  in  his 
whole  diocese  and  in  every  part  of  it.  It  would  seem  a  neces- 
sary conclusion  that  if  there  be  a  church  in  a  diocese  in  which 
the  Bishop  can  never  preach  or  administer  the  Sacraments 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


25 


and  the  like,  without  being  in  each  particular  instance  pre- 
viously authorized  by  another,  that  he  really  has  not  episcopal 
power  in  that  church.  It  may  be  asked,  is  there  no  limitation 
to  these  principles  ?  Can  a  Bishop  ^at  any  time,  in  any  part 
of  his  diocese,  perform  any  ministerial  act  he  pleases  ?  The 
Committee  will  not  keep  back  their  belief  that  in  the  begin- 
ning- it  was  even  so — that  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Church 
Presbyters  did  not  preach  when  Bishops  were  present,  and 
that,  as  we  are  taught  by  the  learned  Bingham,  it  was  a  not- 
able event  when  St.  Augustine,  while  still  a  Presbyter,  was 
permitted  to  preach  in  the  presence  of  the  Bishop,  The  in- 
stitution of  the  parochial  system  has,  however,  produced  a 
mighty  revolution  in  the  relations  of  Bishops  and  Presbyters. 
Presbyters  are  now  made  responsible  for  the  spiritual  state  of 
the  souls  in  their  parishes,  and  their  power  must  bear  some 
relation  to  their  responsibility.  The  Committee  consequently 
conceive  that  the  mere  presence  of  a  Bishop  does  not,  by  the 
existing  established  system  of  the  Church,  take  away  the  right 
and  duty  of  a  Presbyter  to  teach  in  his  own  person,  and  ad- 
minister the  Sacraments  by  his  own  hands  to  the  people  of  his 
charge.  And  yet  the  Bishop  on  the  principles  first  laid  down, 
must  also  have  the  right  to  teach  and  administer  the  Sacra- 
ments in  every  part  of  his  diocese.  These  apparently  con- 
flicting rights  are,  as  the  Committee  believe,  perfectly  recon- 
ciled in  the  admirable  system  of  the  Church  by  confining  the 
Bishop  in  the  exercise  of  his,  to  those  comparatively  rare  oc- 
casions, on  which  he  goes  officially,  in  his  very  episcopal 
character,  in  visitation  of  a  parish.  If  he  have  it  not  then,  he 
never  has  it,  and  one  of  two  conclusions  must  follow  ;  either 
that  the  Bishop,  as  such,  is  not  authorized  to  preach  and  ad- 
minister the  Sacraments,  or  that  being  thus  authorized  by  his 
very  office,  this  authority  is  afterwards  taken  from  him  by 


26 


In  Memoriam. 


the  Rubrics  and  Canons  which  regulate  that  office.  Are  we 
to  believe  the  Church  has  so  stultified  herself  ?  And  that 
having-  in  the  Consecration  Office  given  these  powers  in 
obedience  to  Scripture,  the  moment  the  consecration  is  com- 
plete, she  takes  them  away  by  the  Rubrics  and  Canons  which 
she  has  enacted,  and  which  the  Bishop  is  bound  to  observe?  " 

To  these  principles  the  Bishop,  when  presently 
called  to  preside  over  a  diocese,  conformed  his  own 
action.  He  ruled  his  people  prudently,  with  all  his 
power.  Not  angrily,  harshly,  capriciously,  or  in 
the  way  of  meddlesome  interference  with  the  just 
freedom  and  discretion  of  the  clergy  and  laity  ;  not 
with  episcopal  pretension  ;  no  man  was  more  free 
from  the  vanity  and  arrogance  of  official  self-asser- 
tion. He  might  well  have  taken  as  the  motto  of 
his  episcopate  the  aphorism  of  Lord  Bacon,  ''As- 
sert the  right  of  thy  place,  but  voice  it  not  with 
useless  challenges."  But  rule  he  did,  firmly,  gent- 
ly, manfully.  In  things  indifferent  or  doubtful  or 
where  the  law  was  silent,  he  required  that  the  god- 
ly judgment  of  the  chief  pastor  should  prevail  over 
the  discordant  opinions  of  the  many  pastors.  I 
said  he  ruled  manfully.  He  respected  the  man- 
hood of  his  clergy  as  well  as  his  own.  He  ruled 
with  a  dignity,  a  sympathy,  a  reasonableness,  a 
high  courtesy,  which  forbade  any  sense  of  humil- 
iation in  submitting  to  authority. 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


27 


He  had  once  occasion  to  set  out  in  order  his 
ideal  of  a  faithful  episcopate.    He  said  : 

"  The  Church  which  received  the  truth  from  Christ,  which 
can  itself  neither  make  it  nor  reveal  it,  has  yet  the  high  mis- 
sion of  guarding  it  and  teaching  it.  She  has  systematized  the 
teachings  of  Scripture,  incorporated  those  which  are  essential 
to  salvation  into  her  Creeds,  and  wrought  these  and  other 
truths  into  the  very  texture  of  her  Liturgy  and  offices.  Now 
it  is  a  part  of  a  Bishop's  duty  to  guard  this  precious  deposit. 

*  ~¥  *  ^  -¥r  H<  =fc 

"  In  the  midst  of  mutable  opinions,  open  to  change  at  every 
hour,  whether  the  change  be  ordained  by  the  Pope  at  Rome, 
or  the  Pope  in  the  individual's  own  bosom,  God  has  seen  fit, 
in  his  mysterious  sovereignty,  to  entrust  this  Church  with  a 
stable  and  definite  Creed,  the  very  truth  as  taught  by  Christ 
and  His  Apostles,  as  received  and  transmitted  by  that  body 
which  he  has  promised  never,  never,  never  to  forsake  !  This 
truth  it  is  a  Bishop's  office  to  guard,  and  his  duty  to  diffuse. 

"  Again,  it  belongs  to  the  office  of  a  bishop  not  only  to 
guard  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  but  to  labor  directly  for  the 
souls  of  men.  Bishops  are  rulers  in  the  Church  of  God,  but 
they  are  likewise  Pastors,  whose  business  it  is  to  feed  the 
flock.  There  is  danger  that  in  our  own  minds,  as  well  as  in 
the  opinion  of  the  multitude,  the  former  relation  may  over- 
shadow and  even  thrust  out  the  latter.  The  Bishops  of  the 
primitive  Church  were  pre-eminently  Pastors,  only  second- 
arily rulers.  In  the  mediaeval  period,  when  dioceses  were 
inordinately  enlarged,  and  became  the  objects  of  secular  am- 
bition, the  office  of  ruler  absorbed  every  other  appertaining 


28 


In  Memoriam. 


to  the  order.  Men  held  more  than  one  diocese,  and  even 
dioceses  in  more  than  one  country,  and  even  children  were 
made  Bishops,  as  children  might  succeed  to  a  lordship.  This 
abuse  tended  to  bring-  about,  and  in  some  degree  to  justify 
the  introduction  of  the  Presbyterian  system,  and  so  obstinate 
are  old  traditions  and  old  habits  of  thought,  that  we  have 
scarcely  yet  learned  to  feel  how  direct  ought  to  be  the  rela- 
tion between  a  Bishop  and  his  flock,  how  immediately  he 
ought  to  feed  them,  and  not  merely  by  the  hands  of  others, 
how  individual  should  be  his  acquaintance  with  them,  how 
he  ought  to  know  his  own  sheep  by  name.  A  Bishop  ought 
to  be  a  preacher  to  his  diocese,  whose  voice  is  familiar  in 
every  part  of  it  ;  of  all  preachers,  he  ought  to  be  the  most 
earnest,  the  most  self-renouncing,  the  most  studious  to  win 
souls. 

"  But  if  we  value  souls,  we  must  use  all  suitable  means  to 
win  them,  and  one  surely  of  the  most  efficacious  of  these  is, 
by  simple,  earnest,  loving,  thoughtful,  instructive  preaching. 
And  what  an  opportunity  of  doing  good  in  this  way  is  put  into 
the  hands  of  a  Bishop  !  Wherever  he  goes,  multitudes  of 
people  flock  to  hear  him.  He  may  be  a  gifted  preacher  or  he 
may  not,  but  at  any  rate  he  is  their  Bishop,  their  chief  Pastor. 
He  speaks  with  authority.  Every  word  rightly  spoken  by  him 
tells.  The  people  look  to  him  with  confidence  for  their  food. 
How  necessary,  then,  that  he  should  be  prepared  to  distribute 
this  food,  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word,  the  bread  of  life.  Not 
fossil  skeletons  of  old  sermons  which  he  has  dug  up  out  of  his 
closet,  from  which  all  life  has  departed,  if  ever  they  had  life  ; 
not  the  hard  stones  of  controversy  with  which  to  pelt  op- 
posers  ;  not  the  chaff  of  mere  declamation  ;  not  the  vapid 
flowers  of  a  gaudy  rhetoric,  but  the  bread  of  life,  carefully 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


29 


searched,  arid  as  far  as  may  be,  winnowed  from  error  ;  divine 
truth  taught  positively,  taught  with  authority,  with  reference 
to  the  wants  and  dangers  of  his  immediate  hearers,  their  pe- 
culiar duties  and  temptations. 

*  H"  *  *    „         *  *  '  * 

"  And  at  the  same  time  that  the  Bishop  is  a  shepherd  over 
the  flock,  he  is  to  be  the  ruler  and  the  overseer  of  the  other 
shepherds.  These  he  is  to  cheer,  and  strengthen,  and  encour- 
age, and  at  the  same  time  direct,  and  if  need  be  restrain.  A 
Bishop  ought  to  have,  to  be  fully  fitted  for  his  work,  a  sym- 
pathizing nature,  to  be  able  to  weep  with  them  that  weep,  and 
rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice.  His  brethren  of  the  clergy 
should  recognize  in  him  their  truest  friend,  and  apply  to  him 
spontaneously  for  counsel  and  for  consolation.  And  yet,  with 
the  gentleness  of  a  father,  there  should  be  the  authority  and 
firmness  of  a  ruler  ;  and  these  latter  qualities  are  the  more 
necessary  in  our  day,  because  so  plainly  the  tendency  among 
us  is  to  break  down  all  authority.  A  Bishop,  with  his  entire 
church,  may  have  to  oppose  himself  to  a  powerful  and  threat- 
ening world.  He  may  have  to  stand  up  with  his  clergy 
against  the  laity.  He  may  have,  hardest  trial  of  all,  to  stand 
up  against  his  clergy,  for  he  must  stand  up  supremely  for 
His  Master,  whose  steward  he  is.  How  difficult  in  this  office 
to  be  faithful  !  Need  we  wonder  that  the  ancient  Bishops  are 
said  sometimes  to  have  fled  from  those  who  sought  to  conse- 
crate them  ?  "* 

I  cannot  doubt  that  my  brethren  of  North  Caro- 
lina will  recognize  in  these  words  a  faithful  picture 


Sermon  at  a  consecration  in  Richmond,  1859. 


30 


In  Memoriam. 


of  the  spirit  and  of  the  methods  which  character- 
ized the  Episcopate  of  him  who  so  long  presided 
over  them. 

THE  OXFORD  MOVEMENT. 

Having  thus  considered  Bishop  Atkinson's  share 
in  resisting  any  attempt  to  detract  from  the  cath- 
olic features  of  the  Church,  we  may  well  proceed 
to  notice  his  position  in  connection  with  a  drift  of 
thought  in  an  opposite  direction. 

The  Oxford  Tract  movement  has  in  the  last  half 
century  exerted  in  the  Church  a  wonderful  influence 
for  good,  not  unmixed  however  with  grave  evils. 

From  the  very  first,  our  Bishop  recognized  the 
value  of  this  movement,  and  sympathized  in  the 
purposes  avowed.  So  far  as  it  taught  men  to 
reverence  the  Primitive  Church,  and  to  accept  the 
"  quod  semper,  ubique  et  ab  omnibus  "  as  the  authori- 
tative corrective  of  a  vagrant  private  judgment,  he 
deemed  it  a  much  needed  revival.  So  far  as  it 
affirmed  the  grace  of  Holy  Baptism  :  so  far  as  it 
affirmed  the  precious  mystery  of  the  Eucharist, 
that  Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  hath 
given  His  Son  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  not  only 
to  die  for  us,  but  also  to  be  our  spiritual  food  and 
sustenance  in  that  Holy  Sacrament :  so  far  as  these 
leaders  incited  men  to  lead  a  life  of  devotion, 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


3i 


habitually  praying  in  the  house  of  God,  and  fre- 
quenting His  Holy  Supper  ;  so  far  as  they  per- 
suaded them  to  resort  without  diffidence  to  their 
Pastors  for  advice  and  guidance  in  their  trials  ;  just 
so  far  and  no  further  did  Bishop  Atkinson  favor  the 
new  teaching. 

But  he  was  Anglican  to  the  back-bone.  He  was 
thoroughly  convinced  that  the  Anglican  Refor- 
mation was  necessary  and  lawful,  and  was  wisely 
conducted,  so  that  no  catholic  truth  whatever  is 
denied  or  obscured  in  our  formularies. 

He  had  no  sympathy  with  the  formulas,  old  or 
new,  whereby  men  sought  to  explain  the  inexpli- 
cable, and  to  define  the  mode  of  the  Real  Presence. 
He  had  little  patience  with  that  extravagance  of 
private  judgment,  which  has  led  individuals  and 
parties  to  pronounce  doctrines  and  ceremonies  to 
be  catholic,  whereof  the  Church,  whose  commis- 
sion they  bore,  had  given  them  no  authority  to 
speak.  Auricular  confession  he  regarded  as  the 
crucial  question.  In  his  charge  to  the  diocese,  and 
in  his  reply  to  Archbishop  Gibbons  (a  reply  marked 
by  chivalrous  courtesy  to  his  critic,  no  less  than  by 
force  of  argument),  he  declared  himself  invincibly 
hostile  to  any  theory  of  confession  and  absolution 
which  would  offer  as  necessary  food,  remedies  only 
profitable  for  the  most  serious  maladies  of  the  spirit. 


32  In  Memoriam. 

Especially  was  he  offended  at  any  importation  of 
the  Liguorian  casuistry  into  this  Church.  No  human 
power  could  have  wrung  from  him  that  which  was 
confided  to  him  in  priestly  confidence.  But  to  deny 
all  knowledge  of  a  matter,  saying  to  himself,  I 
know  it,  not  "  ut  homo"  but  "  ut  Dens,"  he  would 
have  scorned,  as  he  would  have  scorned  any  other 
lie,  or  any  other  suggestion  that  the  God  of  Truth 
is  to  be  served  with  lies. 

Not  that  he  specially  affected  the  name  "  Protes- 
tant." With  one  of  his  clear  convictions,  the  mere 
protest  against  error  was  no  adequate  denomina- 
tion. He  denied  the  false,  but  he  also  affirmed  the 
true.  The  word  "  CATHOLIC  "  issued  from  his  lips 
with  no  faltering  or  uncertain  sound. 

In  his  sermon  commemorative  of  the  late  Bishop 
of  Maryland,  Bishop  Atkinson  used  this  language: 
"  It  is  not  pretended  that  lie  liked  ritualistic  ceremo- 
nial:  his  mind  was,  as  some  suppose,  not  sufficiently 
(Esthetic,  or  as  I  should  say,  too  masculine  for  that." 

I  ventured  to  tell  him,  at  the  time,  that  I  differed 
from  him,  both  as  to  the  fact,  and  the  explanation. 
Certainly  Bishop  Whittingham  was  no  ritualist,  in 
the  party  sense,  but  he  had  aesthetic  taste,  and  he 
was  musician  enough  to  read  with  pleasure  the 
score  of  the  "  Messiah." 

Bishop  Atkinson  was  neither  musical,  nor  sesthe- 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


33 


tic.  In  his  lofty  intellectuality  he  deemed  the 
truth  in  her  own  simple  attire,  without  any  extra- 
neous adornment,  beautiful  enough  to  win  the 
homage  of  all  minds  and  hearts,  provided  only 
that  she  were  reverently  approached. 

But  I  cannot  think  that  the  masculine  mind 
necessarily  revolts  from  the  aesthetic  in  religion. 
Surely  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel  was  no  effeminate, 
and  yet  we  cannot  repeat  his  psalms  without  feel- 
ing that  he  delighted  in  the  magnificent  procession, 
the  swelling  chorus  of  many  instruments  and  voices, 
the  vesture  of  wrought  gold,  in  which  loving  hand- 
maids delight  to  array  the  King's  daughter. 

I  freely  grant  that  we  have  need  to  guard  against 
ceremonies  misleading  or  meaningless  :  against  the 
unauthorized,  the  extravagant,  the  puerile.  But  if 
this  Church  of  ours  is  to  do  her  utmost  work  in  the 
land,  she  must  be  inventive  of  expedients  to  win 
attention  and  to  elicit  the  affections.  Her  apples 
of  gold  must  be  set  in  pictures  of  silver.  Glory 
and  beauty  must  characterize  the  adornments  of 
the  sanctuary  and  the  sacred  services  therein. 

THE  GENERAL  CONVENTION  OF  1865. 

I  have  been  admonished  that  any  memorial  of 
Bishop  Atkinson  would  be  imperfect  which  should 
fail  to  make  mention  of  the  coming  together  which 
3 


34 


In  Memoriam. 


he  chiefly  promoted,  of  the  dioceses,  temporarily 
separated  by  civil  war. 

I  may  not  here  rehearse  the  story  in  order:  the 
time  forbids;  but  some  of  its  incidents  may  well 
be  revived. 

The  war  ended,  the  South  lay  prostrate  and  dis- 
organized, and  communication,  even  by  letter,  was 
dilatory  and  uncertain.  But  it  happened  that  the 
Bishops  of  North  Carolina  and  of  Arkansas  had  an 
opportunity  of  personal  conference.  It  needed 
but  a  moment  or  two  to  discover  that  we  were 
alike  convinced,  that  after  the  fall  of  the  confede- 
rate nationality,  there  no  longer  existed  any  raison 
d'etre  for  a  confederate  church,  and  that  no  time 
should  be  lost  in  seeking  a  resumption  of  our 
organic  relations.  Thus  Bishop  Atkinson  set  forth 
to  the  General  Convention,  while  I  was  glad  to 
follow  him,  haud passibus  cequis. 

We  were  presently  in  very  delicate  and  embar- 
rassing circumstances.  We  knew  well  that  we  ex- 
posed ourselves  to  the  suspicion  of  courting  the 
winning  side,  and  of  leaving  in  the  lurch  brethren 
in  misfortune,  especially  in  Alabama,  where  the 
churches  were  closed  by  military  edict. 

We  came  into  a  community  exultant  with  vic- 
tory and  enthusiastic  in  loyalty,  disposed  to  take 
for  granted  that  to  return  was  to  ask  forgiveness. 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


35 


To  the  tact,  the  gentleness,  the  manly  outspoken- 
ness of  Bishop  Atkinson  the  Church  is  indebted 
for  the  honorable  result  of  this  venture.  To 
Bishops  Potter  and  Whittingham,  who,  with  friend- 
ly violence  brought  us  back  to  our  seats  in  the 
House  of  Bishops,  standing  guard  over  us  to  shield 
us  from  any  possible  annoyance ;  to  Dr.  Kerfoot, 
now  the  Bishop  of  Pittsburgh,  and  then  a  deputy 
from  Pennsylvania,  who  resisted  any  action  dis- 
courteous to  the  few  delegates  from  the  South  ;  to 
John  and  William  Welsh,  who  laded  us  with  hos- 
pitable kindness,  we  came  under  lasting  obligations. 

It  soon  appeared  that  the  Convention  cheerfully 
acquiesced  in  all  that  we  desired  in  behalf  of  our 
absent  brethren. 

But  what  of  the  expected  peccavi?  This  issue 
could  not  be  avoided.  Presently  Bishop  Burgess 
of  Maine,  then  in  very  failing  health,  offered  a  res- 
olution appointing  an  early  day  to  be  observed  as 
a  Thanksgiving  for  the  results  of  the  war.  Among 
these  results  as  specified  in  the  preamble,  were 
"  the  universal  establislnnent  of  the  authority  of  the 
national  Govemmeiit"  and  also  "  the  extension  among 
all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  of  the  blessings  of 
freedom,  education,  culture  and  social  improvement." 

At  the  hours  appointed  for  this  discussion  the 
Southern  Bishops  were  not  present.    During  a  re- 


36 


In  Memoriam. 


cess,  Bishop  Burgess  came  to  my  desk  and  com- 
plained affectionately  yet  earnestly,  of  the  marked 
reflection  upon  the  Bishops,  despite  the  evidence 
given  of  their  fraternal  consideration,  in  thus  de- 
clining to  attend  the  debate. 

I  replied,  that  but  a  few  moments  before,  Bishop 
Atkinson  had  said  to  me,  that  the  brotherly  kind- 
ness of  the  Bishops  had  been  such  as  we  could  de- 
light to  remember  to  our  dying  day.  Some  of 
them  (Bishop  Burgess  knew  that  the  allusion 
was  to  himself)  we  shall  never  see  again.  They  are 
now  discussing  a  resolution  in  which  we  cannot 
agree,  and  will  utter  sentiments  which  cannot  but 
pain  us.  It  is  best  that  we  should  not  hear  all  the 
words  spoken. 

Bishop  Burgess  was  moved  by  these  kind  words. 
Presently  he  asked,  "  What  is  there  in  this  resolu- 
tion that  can  possibly  grieve  you  ?  "  I  pointed  to 
the  words  "  extension  of  freedom."  I  trust  in  God, 
I  said,  that  freedom  may  bring  to  the  colored  race 
all  the  blessings  you  anticipate  ;  but  wiser  men  than 
I,  and  Northern  men  at  that,  honestly  doubt 
whether  freedom  will  prove  to  them  a  blessing  or  a 
curse.  Why  should  this  House  commit  itself  in 
a  matter  wherein  it  has  no  authority? 

He  considered  a  moment,  dropped  down  into  a 
seat  and  taking  a  pen,  erased  from  his  resolution 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


37 


the  words  objected  to.  Subsequently  he  asked  leave 
to  amend  it  by  inserting  the  clause,  "and  grate- 
fully acknozvledging  the  special,  loving  kindness  of 
the  Lord  to  this  Church  in  the  re-establisJiment  of  its 
unity  througJwut  the  land,  as  represented  in  this 
National  Council." 

Upon  the  sixth  day,  Bishop  Whitting*ham  offered 
a  substitute,  and  on  the  motion  of  Bishop  Clarke 
the  whole  matter  was  referred  to  a  committee  con- 
sisting of  the  five  senior  Bishops.  After  two  days, 
this  committee  reported  a  preamble  and  resolutions. 
In  these  we  could  not  possibly  concur. 

All  eyes  were  upon  Bishop  Atkinson  as  he  an- 
swered the  appeal  made  to  him.  He  knew  that  he 
had  that  to  say  which  must  needs  be  most  dis- 
tasteful to  men  full  of  exultation  at  the  Southern 
downfall.  With  no  diffidence  and  with  no  temper, 
rather  with  the  frankness  of  a  child  uttering  his 
thought,  he  opened  all  his  mind. 

"  We  are  asked,"  said  he,  "  to  unite  with  you  in  re- 
turning thanks  for  the  restoration  of  peace  and  unity. 
The  former  we  can  say,  the  latter  we  cannot  say. 

"  Wre  are  thankful  for  the  restoration  of  peace. 
War  is  a  great  evil.  It  is  clear  to  my  mind  that  in 
the  counsels  of  the  All-wise,  the  issue  of  this  con- 
test was  pre-determined.  I  am  thankful  that  the 
appointed  end  has  come,  and  that  war  is  exchanged 


38 


In  Mentor  iam. 


for  peace.  But  we  are  not  thankful  for  the  unity 
described  in  the  resolution,  '  re-establishing  the  au- 
thority of  the  National  Government  over  all  the 
land'  We  acquiesce  in  that  result.  We  will  ac- 
commodate ourselves  to  it,  and  will  do  our  duty  as 
citizens  of  the  common  Government.  But  we  can- 
not say  that  we  are  thankful.  We  labored  and 
prayed  for  a  very  different  termination,  and,  if  it 
had  seemed  good  to  our  Heavenly  Father,  would 
have  been  very  thankful  for  the  war  to  result  other- 
wise than  it  has  resulted.  I  am  willing  to  say  that 
I  am  thankful  for  the  restoration  of  PEACE  TO  THE 
COUNTRY  AND  UNITY  TO  THE  CHURCH." 

These  words,  which  I  feel  very  sure  are  substan- 
tially accurate,  well  illustrate  how  he  labored  for 
peace,  and  yet  without  any  unmanly  concession 
whatsoever. 

His  language,  "  in  consideration  of  the  return  of 
peace  to  the  country  and  unity  to  the  Church,"  was 
incorporated  in  a  substitute  offered  by  Bishop 
Stevens,  and  adopted  by  a  vote  of  sixteen  to  seven, 
the  Southern  bishops  being  excused  from  voting. 
Those  of  us  who  were  actors  in  these  proceedings 
were  ever  after  at  a  loss  suitably  to  express  our  ad- 
miration of  the  consideration  for  the  scruples  of  the 
few  unfortunates,  displayed  by  the  majority  of 
the  Bishops. 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


39 


It  deserves  to  be  noted  that  so  soon  as  we  had 
resumed  our  seats  in  the  Ho.use  of  Bishops,  Gen- 
eral Lee  wrote  to  us  a  letter  of  earnest  approval 
and  sympathy. 

I  would  not  claim  for  Bishop  Atkinson  more 
than  is  his  due.  Doubtless  the  good  sense  and  the 
good  feeling  of  the  Church  would  have  secured  the 
same  result  after  a  few  years.  But  by  his  promp- 
titude, by  the  frankness  with  which  he  met  the 
immediate  issues,  by  his  calm  determination  to 
allow  no  censure  to  be  cast  upon  those  with  whom 
he  had  been  associated,  he  secured  a  speedy  adjust- 
ment of  all  possible  differences,  and  promoted  no 
little  the  spirit  of  toleration  and  kindness.  A  few 
years  have  escaped.  The  House  of  Bishops  has  in 
its  ranks  five  or  six  ex-confederate  officers.  One 
of  them  is  a  Foreign  Missionary  Bishop,  another 
presides  over  the  diocese  of  Michigan. 

SYMPATHY  WITH  THE  COLORED  RACE. 

Among  the  subjects  which  soon  after  these 
events  came  to  be  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the 
Church,  was  the  necessity  of  adequate  provision 
for  the  social  and  religious  needs  of  the  emanci- 
pated race. 

The  Bishop  had  no  need  to  learn  the  lesson  of 


4Q 


In  Memoriam. 


responsibility  and  of  sympathy  for  colored  people. 
He  had  always  been  considerate  of  them,  always 
anxious  to  secure  for  them,  while  in  servitude, 
adequate  protection  against  abuse  of  authority, 
and  to  promote  the  patriarchal  relation  of  master 
and  servant,  which  when  duly  observed,  made  the 
tie  of  ownership  and  dependence  very  graceful. 

Bishop  Atkinson,  with  his  usual  decision,  urged 
the  necessity  of  active  measures  on  the  part  of 
the  Church,  for  the  care  of  the  colored  people,  and 
threw  his  influence  earnestly  into  the  establishment 
of  the  Freedmen's  Commission. 

This  Commission  was  not  heartily  accepted  by 
Southern  Churchmen.  To  me  it  was  a  grief  of 
mind  that  I  could  not,  at  its  inception,  give  it  an 
active  support. 

Secular  education  as  the  chief  end,  not  as  a  means 
to  religious  culture,  or  a  corollary  to  it,  was  the 
avowed  purpose  of  the  Commission.  It  proposed 
to  establish  schools  responsible  to  the  central 
board,  and  not  under  the  direction  of  Bishops  and 
Rectors.  I  was  alarmed  at  so  serious  an  innovation 
on  just  principles  of  spiritual  subordination,  and 
found  myself  painfully  out  of  accord  with  Bishop 
Atkinson. 

Doubtless  he  was  more  far-seeing  than  others  of 
us.    In  a  little  while  the  objectionable  features 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


41 


were  removed,  and  the  Commission  planted  itself 
upon  a  churchly  basis,  which  leaves  nothing  to  be 
desired. 

The  Bishop's  hearty  acceptance  of  the  scheme 
led  to  the  establishment  in  his  diocese  of  the  Nor- 
mal School,  which  he  greatly  valued  and  faithfully 
watched  over.  The  colored  congregation  in  Wil- 
mington was  especially  dear  to  him.  He  put  forth 
every  effort  to  promote  the  good-will  of  the  two 
races,  and  to  extend  the  Church's  blessings  to  both 
alike. 

One  cannot  but  contemplate  with  awe  the  prob- 
lem to  be  solved  in  Southern  dioceses,  and  the 
larger  problem  in  all  the  land,  touching  the  practi- 
cal catholicity  of  the  Cfcurch.  How  shall  a  Church, 
where  members  are  chiefly  English-speaking  and 
are  of  the  white  race,  provide  for  the  needs  of 
people  of  foreign  speech,  or  of  another  race? 

A  delegation  of  German  ministers  came  once  into 
our  House  of  Bishops  with  a  piteous  appeal  to  save 
men  of  their  nationality,  dwelling  in  our  midst, 
from  the  anarchy  and  the  heterodoxy  into  which 
they  were  drifting.  The  response,  kind  and  sym- 
pathizing to  be  sure,  was  the  disheartening  "  11011 
possumus." 

For  this  National  Church  of  ours  has  no  exche- 
quer :  nothing  is  laid  at  the  feet  of  the  Apostles. 


42 


In  Memoriam, 


The  alms  of  the  faithful  are  all  marked  special. 
The  Legislature  and  the  Executive  of  the, Church 
are  reluctant  to  devise  any  general  policy  for  the 
common  good,  when  they  are  powerless,  for  lack 
of  means  to  put  it  in  operation. 

The  first  instinct  of  the  judgment  is  to  provide 
for  these  specific  classes  teachers  of  their  own  race 
or  language,  and  services  suited  to  their  immediate 
circumstances.  Something  has  been  done  on  this 
basis,  for  Indians  and  Negroes,  for  Germans,  French- 
men, Italians,  Norwegians:  for  Jews  as  well  as 
Gentiles.    But  the  work  is  scarcely  begun. 

As  the  most  practical  scheme  for  methodizing 
such  work,  without  surrendering  the  territorial  ju- 
risdiction of  Bishops,  Bishop  Atkinson  urged  again 
and  again,  with  unwonted  earnestness  and  without 
any  success  whatever,  the  consecration  of  suffra- 
gan Bishops.  The  mind  of  the  Church  is  so  im- 
movable on  this  subject,  that  this  device  is  not  to 
be  thought  of.  Each  Bishop  must,  according  to 
the  wisdom  given  to  him,  devise  such  expedients 
as  may  best  reach  specific  needs. 

But,  as  for  the  black  race,  who  knows  not  that, 
on  any  large  scale,  it  is  simply  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  financial  ability  to  provide  in  the  most  of 
our  neighborhoods  separate  ministers  and  churches 
for  the  white  man  and  the  black? 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


43 


Why  should  we  not  worship  together  and  kneel 
at  the  same  altar  ?  We  were  wont  often  so  to 
do  in  the  olden  days.  I  have  seen  in  St.  Philip's, 
Charleston,  colored  people  occupying  the  range 
of  seats  all  along  the  wall,  on  the  same  floor  with 
the  whites,  while  an  old  negress,  crippled  with 
rheumatism,  crept  up  the  main  aisle  to  a  seat  pro- 
vided for  her  in  front  of  the  desk.  On  the  Polk 
estate,  in  Tennessee,  one  used  to  see  the  masters 
occupying  the  front  seats  at  morning  prayer,  with 
the  servants  in  the  rear ;  while  at  the  evening 
prayer,  the  positions  were  reversed,  and  the  in- 
struction was  specially  adapted  to  the  humbler 
members  of  the  flock. 

In  making  a  visitation  of  Louisiana  in  Bishop 
Polk's  behalf,  I  have  confirmed  the  well-born,  re- 
fined young  lady  and  her  maid,  whom  she  had 
instructed,  by  her  side.  The  chivalrous,  high-toned, 
Christian  gentry  of  the  South  used  to  see  in  such 
associations  no  surrender  of  their  dignity. 

If  the  Church  is  to  discharge  aright  her  high 
mission  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  I  am 
persuaded  we  must  at  last  regard  the  colored  peo- 
ple as  parishioners,  and  give  them  adequate  accom- 
modation in  the  church. 

In  this  effort  we  must  consider  the  reluctance 
of  some  of  our  parishioners,  and  their  fear  of  dis- 


44 


In  Memoriam. 


turbing  the  usual  order  of  society.  These  scruples 
and  anxieties  are  to  be  prudently  dealt  with,  not 
violently  forced. 

But  there  is  a  graver  difficulty  to  be  encountered 
in  the  unseemly  self-assertion  of  some  colored  peo- 
ple, and  in  the  persistent  demand  of  theorists 
(themselves  never  coming  in  contact  with  the  ne- 
gro), that  all  the  lines  of  color  shall  be  obliterated, 
and  that  the  two  races  shall  commingle,  in  all 
respects,  as  if  they  were  one  race. 

I  was  present  once  at  church,  when  this  demand 
was  made  of  our  Bishop — than  whom  the  colored 
man  had  no  truer  friend.  Some  murmured  at  the 
provision  he  had  directed  to  be  made  for  them, 
claiming  the  right  to  select  their  seats  at  pleasure, 
side  by  side  with  the  whites.  The  Bishop  rebuked 
the  demand  as  presumptuous  and  disorderly. 

I  cannot  think  that  this  enforced  familiarity  is 
reconcilable  with  the  just  self-respect  of  either 
race.  It  seems  most  natural  that  white  people, 
attending  a  church  of  the  colored  race,  should  ac- 
cept the  accommodation  provided  for  them.  And 
surely  the  Christian,  taught  of  his  Master  to  prefer 
the  lowest  room,  should  not  thrust  himself  into  a 
contiguity  deemed  too  familiar  by  his  neighbor. 

Providence,  not  man,  has  plainly  marked  the 
difference  of  type  in  the  African  and  the  Cauca- 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


45 


sian.  To  obliterate  the  color  line  is,  in  the  end, 
to  promote  intermarriage,  to  the  great  injury  of 
white  and  black  alike.  I  believe  that  the  confu- 
sion of  the  races  is  a  thing  impossible.  But  oh  ! 
that  the  day  may  come  when  we  shall  dwell  side 
by  side,  exchanging  all  human  kindnesses,  while 
yet  respecting  the  lines  of  demarcation,  which 
God,  not  man,  has  drawn.  Oh  for  the  day  when 
white  and  black  shall  worship  in  the  same  churches 
without  confusion,  without  rivalry  or  offense,  the 
rich  and  the  poor  together,  and  the  Lord  the 
Maker  of  them  all. 

CONCLUSION. 

In  thus  presenting  some  particulars  of  the  life- 
work  of  our  revered  Father  in  God,  I  trust  that  he 
is  more  truly  delineated  than  by  any  mere  enu- 
meration of  his  mental  and  moral  characteristics. 

There  was  a  remarkable  compensation,  so  to  speak, 
in  these;  one  virtue  supplementing  and  restraining 
another,  and  all  combined  with  rare  adjustment  into 
a  harmonious  whole. 

He  was  intensely  intellectual,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  so  replete  with  sensibility,  and  with  all  the 
generous  emotions,  whether  of  mercy  or  of  wrath, 
that  he  was  in  no  wise  coldly  intellectual. 


46 


In  Memoriam. 


He  had  an  ample  share  of  self-will  and  of  self- 
reliance  ;  great  confidence  in  the  determination  of 
his  own  judgment;  great  firmness  in  acting  out 
his  own  convictions ;  but  his  fairness  and  candor, 
his  intense  reasonableness,  forbade  self-will  to 
degenerate  into  obstinacy,  while  his  modesty  and 
unselfishness  caused  the  self-reliance  to  avoid 
vanity  or  arrogance. 

He  was  eminent  for  the  dignity  of  his  bearing, 
yet  benign  and  affable,  condescending  to  men  of 
low  estate,  yet  with  no  consciousness  of  condescen- 
sion. 

He  was  prudent  and  cautious  in  his  speech,  reti- 
cent when  it  behooved  him  to  be  reticent,  and  when 
he  did  speak,  so  transparent  and  downright,  that 
all  might  know  what  was  in  his  mind. 

He  was  a  theologian,  and  yet  not  a  mere  theolo- 
gian. On  principle  and  of  a  purpose  he  cultivated 
general  literature,  lest  he  should  fall  into  theologi- 
cal narrowness,  and  informed  himself  and  interested 
himself  in  all  that  might  keep  him  in  sympathy 
with  his  kind. 

He  was  most  precise  in  his  memory  of  persons, 
names,  dates  and  facts,  yet  never  prolix,  tedious  or 
disposed  to  emphasize  trifles. 

He  was  intensely  ecclesiastical,  while  yet  in  his 
private  religious  life  and  in  his  daily  teachings  he 


Bishop  Atkinson.  47 


dwelt  upon  those  simple  truths  of  the  old,  old  story 
of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Son  of 
God,  on  which  all  our  hopes  repose.  He  knew 
how  to  relax  from  labor ;  he  appreciated  the  hu- 
morous, while  relaxation  never  became  indolence, 
and  playfulness  never  passed  into  frivolity. 

But  was  he,  one  may  ask,  absolutely  perfect  ? 
Certainly,  he  himself  would  have  been  the  last  to 
affect  exemption  from  the  common  frailty. 

Whatever  may  have  been  his  share  of  mortal 
weakness,  even  if  I  had  the  sagacity  to  discern  it, 
I  dare  not  dissect,  in  search  of  flaw,  a  soul  so  just 
and  guileless.  Of  one  thing  I  am  well  assured, 
that  those  who  loved  him  best  and  knew  him  in  his 
utmost  unreserve,  find  no  note  in  the  tablets  of 
memory  whereon  this  honored  name  is  written, 
which  may  not  be  perused  without  exciting  a  se- 
rious regret  or  causing  a  blush  of  shame. 

The  Bishop's  life  was  one  of  patient  industry  and 
uniform  labor,  with  but  occasional  interruption, 
until  he  had  passed  a  little  way  beyond  the  Psalm- 
ist's bound  of  three-score  years  and  ten,  and  then 
it  appeared  (I  am  told  such  is  the  most  probable 
explanation  of  his  gradual  decay)  the  heart,  as 
young  as  ever  in  its  warm  affections,  first  felt  the 
debility  of  age.  The  keepers  of  the  house  were 
no  more  tremulous  than  before,  neither  had  the 


48 


In  Memoriam. 


strong  men  bowed  themselves,  nor  those  that 
looked  out  of  the  windows  become  darkened,  nor 
the  doors  become  shut  in  the  streets  causing  the 
sound  of  the  grinding  to  become  low.  He  seemed  as 
strong,  as  clear  in  vision,  as  distinct  in  speech  as  in 
years  before.  But  the  golden  bowl  was  breaking, 
the  wheel  becoming  disabled  at  the  cistern  whence 
issues  the  stream  of  our  physical  being.  It  re- 
mained only  to  be  patient  and  to  whisper  in  the 
heart  the  "  Expectans  expectavi ;  "  for  presently 
this  man  goeth  to  his  long  home,  hard  by  the  altar 
where  he  delighted  to  minister,  and  the  crowd  of 
mourners,  family  and  friends,  vestries  and  citizens, 
white  and  black,  bear  him  in  sad  procession  through 
the  streets  of  the  city  where  he  dwelt. 

The  latter  months  of  his  life  were  spent  in  seclu- 
sion ;  months  they  were  in  which  with  weariness 
and  languor,  but  without  acute  suffering,  he  stead- 
ily descended  to  the  grave,  released  from  life  so 
gently  that  at  the  last  hour  there  were  no  pains  to 
add  anguish  to  his  dismissal. 

Without  too  officiously  opening  the  curtains  of 
his  sick-room,  I  would  tell  you,  as  I  have  learned 
them  from  those  who  ministered  to  him,  some  par- 
ticulars of  his  last  sickness. 

"  You  knew  him  well,  and  are  fully  aware  how 
deeply  his  modesty  and  profound  humility  veiled 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


49 


his  inward  feelings,  and  especially  his  religious  emo- 
tions. He  was  remarkable  for  sincerity  and  sim- 
plicity of  character,  and  was  always  averse  to  a 
display  of  his  feelings.  Accordingly  his  long  sick- 
ness was  chiefly  marked  by  the  utmost  patience  and 
humility,  and  gentleness.  So  too  his  thankfulness 
and  Christian  courtesy  were  very  manifest  to  the 
last.  No  murmur  of  complaint  ever  escaped  his 
lips,  and  the  slightest  service  called  forth  his  cour- 
teous thanks.  As  it  was  in  his  days  of  health,  so 
in  all  his  sickness,  and  in  his  greatest  sufferings  and 
helplessness,  he  would  if  possible  help  himself,  and 
would  try  to  lessen  the  care  and  pains  of  the  loving 
ones,  who  found  their  highest  delight  in  minister- 
ing to  him. 

"  His  noble  and  richly  stored  mind  retained  its 
brightness,  and  his  broad  and  generous  sympathies 
with  all  the  best  interests  of  man  were  manifested 
to  the  last.  He  was  read  to  a  great  deal,  and  after 
his  daughter  came  to  Wilmington,  she  spent  much 
of  the  time  in  reading  to  him.  Among  other 
things,  he  would  have  her  read  to  him  his  favorite 
London  Guardian,  and  choice  articles  from  the 
Reviews,  keeping  up  his  interest  in  the  great  pub- 
lic movements  and  events  of  the  time. 

"  His  childlike  submission  to  the  guidance  of  the 
Church  was  noteworthy.  He  had  the  appointed 
4 


5o 


In  Memoriam. 


lessons  and  the  daily  portions  of  the  Psalter  read 
to  him  every  day,  and  on  Sundays  the  entire  ser- 
vices ;  and  it  was  ordered  that  very  shortly  before 
his  departure,  the  two  evening  psalms  for  the  fourth 
day,  so  singularly  appropriate,  were  read  to  him  ; 
the  twenty-second  psalm  containing  the  plaintive 
supplications  of  our  Blessed  Lord  upon  the  cross, 
and  His  thankful  exultation  ;  and  then  that  beauti- 
ful inspired  viaticum  of  the  saints,  '  The  Lord  is 
my  Shepherd,'  and  the  words  of  this  psalm  were 
the  last  words  of  Holy  Scripture  which  fell  upon 
his  ear,  and  very  soon  afterwards  came  the  sudden 
summons  of  the  Saviour  calling  him  to  Himself. 

"  Those  who  were  constantly  with  him  during  the 
last  weeks,  now  see  and  feel  that  they  were  all  the 
time  sustained  and  strengthened  by  his  perfect  pa- 
tience and  gentle  cheerfulness,  and  by  the  atmos- 
phere of  peace  which  his  lovely  spirit  seemed  to 
diffuse  around  him." 

Brethren  of  the  clergy  and  of  the  laity,  it  were 
superfluous  to  impress  upon  you  the  lessons  of 
such  a  life.  They  are  familiar  to  every  thoughtful 
mind. 

May  the  Church  in  our  land,  be  ever  ordered  and 
governed  by  Pastors  as  faithful  and  true  as  he 
whom  we  commemorate  to-day!  May  he  who  suc- 
ceeds to  his  vacant  chair  be  blessed  and  prospered 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


5i 


in  his  zealous  efforts  to  supply  the  spiritual  needs 
of  a  diocese  so  large,  so  overwhelming  in  its  re- 
sponsibilities, so  deficient,  I  fear,  in  the  laborers 
and  the  means  necessary  to  reap  the  fields  every- 
where ripe  for  the  harvest. 

May  your  reverence  for  him  and  his  high  office, 
as  well  as  your  loving  recollection  of  the  words  of 
him  who  being  dead  yet  speaketh,  lead  the 
members  of  this  diocese  to  rally  as  one  man  around 
your  chief  Pastor,  so  that  this  diocese  of  North 
Carolina  shall  be  to  us  all  the  very  pattern  of  wise, 
united,  effective  working  for  God,  for  his  Church, 
and  for  man's  salvation  ! 

I  may  best  conclude  this  sermon  by  uttering  con- 
cerning him  whose  episcopate  is  ended,  the  words 
wherewith  he  sought  to  encourage,  long  years  ago, 
a  young  man  just  assuming  the  responsibilities  of 
that  office. 

"  Men  bow  themselves  to  be  consecrated  as 
Bishops,  feeling  that  they  are  about  to  take  up  a 
heavy  burden,  and  yet,  after  all,  it  is  to  him  who 
enters  on  it  with  his  whole  soul,  a  good  work, 
arduous  but  glorious.  Must  we  not  believe  that 
God  gives  special  grace  to  faithful  men  who 
heartily  devote  themselves  to  this  work?  Are  we 
not  permitted  to  hope  that  we  see  the  effects  of 
this  grace  in  their  increasing  ripeness  and  sound- 


52 


Bishop  Atkinson. 


ness  of  Christian  character?  That  the  rash  and 
vehement  are  softened,  and  the  gentle  and  yielding 
are  strengthened?  And  surely,  surely  we  must  be 
persuaded  that  the  reward  of  a  good  Bishop  here- 
after, will  be  something  signal  and  transcendent. 

"  The  angels  of  the  churches  are  repre- 
sented IN  THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION,  AS  STARS 

which  the  Son  of  Man  carries  in  his  right 
hand,  and  the  elders  are  described  as 
sitting  around  the  lord  on  hls  throne, 
clothed  in  white  raiment,  and  having  on 
their  heads  crowns  of  gold." 


w 

# 


A778L  viziz? 


